Celtics want to win this thing now’

Scott Souza

Thursday

May 29, 2008 at 12:01 AMMay 29, 2008 at 3:47 AM

Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals is technically not a must-win for the Celtics. But it sure would be nice for a team that will have played 18 games in the last 35 days – without more than one day off in between any contest – by the time they are done tonight at the Palace of Auburn Hills.

Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals is technically not a must-win for the Celtics.

But it sure would be nice for a team that will have played 18 games in the last 35 days – without more than one day off in between any contest – by the time they are done tonight at the Palace of Auburn Hills.

“We want to win this thing now if we can,” said Celtics coach Doc Rivers during a conference call shortly before leaving for Michigan with his team up 3-2 in the best-of-seven series. “But they’re not going to let us do it. We have to play the game of our lives to do it.”

This late in a playoff run even the melodrama seems understated.

Watching the Celtics build a 17-point lead in exhilarating fashion in Wednesday’s Game 5, then hold off Detroit’s trapping and 3-point shooting during a excruciatingly tense final 12 minutes for a 106-102 victory, was evidence of that.

Yet while games like that take a toll on fans’ fingernails and blood pressure, they could eventually take a toll on the players as well. For the second time in two pressurized Game 5s, Rajon Rondo essentially didn’t leave the court in the second half and wound up with 45:29 of playing time. Paul Pierce (44:27) and Kevin Garnett (41:25) also topped the 40-minute mark, while Kendrick Perkins huffed and puffed his way through 38:40 in the game of his life (18 points, 16 rebounds, 8-of-11 shooting).

“I didn't really think about how tired I was,” said Pierce of how he felt during a fourth quarter in which the Celtics were outscored 31-22. “The only thing on my mind is getting a win, getting a step closer to being in the NBA Finals. I don't think fatigue is going to be a factor for the rest of this series.

“The guys physically, for the most part, are feeling good, and it's all about mental toughness right now.”

A laudable sentiment from the captain. But it’s the same Pierce who admitted he didn’t even have the energy to check his text messages following his 41-point performance against the Cavaliers in Game 7 last Sunday and was still very sore from the effort nearly a week later.

Rivers said he made a decision before Game 5 to shorten his rotation for the night – only seven players were on the court longer than 128 seconds with P.J. Brown as the only big man to see time off the bench (13:52) – and that doesn’t figure to change all that much until a spot in the NBA finals is clinched.

“You can do it more in the playoffs because you have the day off of rest between each game,” said Rivers, who has done his best to make sure there is as much down time as possible on non-game days since the start of the conference semifinals. “You can clearly do it. The only guy I am concerned about doing it at times with is Kevin because his energy level is so high.

“I think the other guys can handle it. Kevin is the only guy who, if you did it two games in a row, you would be concerned.”

One other lingering concern for the Celtics have been the way they have failed to convincingly close out games with big leads in the series. In both Games 3 and 5, the Pistons used an aggressive perimeter trap to force the Celtics into either bad shots or turnovers and shrink Boston’s cushion in the closing minutes.

“The fourth quarter is something we're going to have to go back and look at,” said Pierce Wednesday night, “because if we get ourselves in this position again in Detroit, we've got to be able to close the game out a little bit better than we did tonight.

“Having a 13 point lead (entering the fourth) we knew they were going to be aggressive. Thinking about having the lead in the fourth quarter, we've got to continue to be aggressive. I thought it was a little passive when they put out the traps, but you've got to understand, hey, that's the playoffs and it's not going to be easy.

“You just keep talking about it and showing them film of what they did wrong,” said Rivers of the solution. “You can’t hold on to a game. You’ve got to secure it and go get it.”

If they can do that tonight, they will have six days to rest up for the final leg of their yearlong journey.

If not, there’s always another Sunday Game 7 at the Garden to get stomachs all over New England churning once again.

MetroWest Daily News

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